Of Names and Meanings
by Chitinase
Summary: Sometimes when he saw her in Elysium, he would be reminded of the past. Rated for the underlying idea of incest in almost all aspects of Greek Mythology.


A/N: This is just a short drabble that came to me when I was recalling the many names of different gods and goddesses! I was thinking of how differently they were portrayed with different surnames, and this is the result. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the writing.

* * *

><p><em>Sometimes when he saw her in Elysium, he would be reminded of the past.<em>

* * *

><p>Bright green eyes shining in wonderment at the beauty of the fields and copper red hair drifting around her face, carried by the winds of Zephyr, she would walk and dance in the grass barefooted.<p>

Once upon a time, when she was still Parthenos, he asked her why she did.

She'd told him how much she loved to feel the tickling sensation of the clean grass, so green and fresh, underfoot. She'd told him how much she loved the joy of life (although when she said that he'd mentally corrected her that Elysium was in the _Underworld_, a land for the dead), and the excitement of freedom. She'd told him how intensely she disliked it when mortals or immortals alike wished for nothing more than the absolution of death.

He'd loved her and her youth, her vibrancy. And when their brother had deceived her (that _darned_ fool! - she was _worth_ more, to be _respected_ more, their brother didn't love her as he claimed so in his pursuit of her) and she'd come to him, seeking comfort, he'd given it to her, dropping her a word of advice here and there. Now he wished he'd done more, but he supposed he couldn't do anything since she'd promised to be faithful to only one person, and their brother (he spit out the word) had forcefully taken that loyalty.

Then he'd left for the Underworld when she'd made a decision to cover her shame and disgust, returning only once in between for their marriage. She'd never looked more beautiful than he'd seen her on that day, but he could read the agony in her eyes.

When he was finally back again, after many millenia, she'd greeted him coolly, showing not even a small fragment of joy. So this was what being Teleia had done to her.

No longer did she dance in the fields of Olympus, so bright and sunny around her, as he'd seen her do so before. No longer did she take undeniable delight in the majesty of colours. No longer did she giggle while sitting with him beneath the branches of their favourite elder tree, a peacock or two beside them (and that was them acting like the children they were then right after their freedom from their father, when she was still known as Pais and chased butterflies in those very same fields).

Seeing her walk regally, her head held high and with barely the slightest trace of anger and hurt visible in her gaze, he regretted everything that'd happened. She'd turned into someone she wasn't, someone she did not want to be.

And he hated their brother even more for doing this to her.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" he'd asked her, wanting a reply just to show that she was still the same child of the past, the same woman he had grown accustomed to throughout his entire life (_existence_, he corrected himself).

She simply regarded him frostily, before replying that she wasn't the same person that she was before, that she could never be. The day when she could return to the past was the day when the gods could die.

He'd never asked again.

And then he'd met her niece, who was so similar to her, save for appearances. Although he had fallen in love with Persephone after awhile - and who wouldn't? With Persephone's innocence, even the coldest heart could be melted - there was still a part of him that he had given up to her (was it his heart?) the moment he'd laid eyes on her.

No matter how much it seemed likely to anyone else, he could not bear to give up his last memories of her (there, in the corner of his mind's eye! - her walking slightly ahead of him, animatedly talking about something he couldn't _quite_ recall, and him watching the flowers bend _slightly_ towards her as she passed, as if in greeting).

He merely continued wishing that gods could die, and maybe someday she'd dance barefooted into Elysium and_ remain_ there, in harmony with the beauty and joy around her. And he vowed to himself that should that day ever come, she would stay in Elysium. He would make sure of it, before finally joining her himself, in his eternal rest.

And there they would be forever (untouched by the passage of time and the complications of existence).


End file.
